Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for delivering advertising materials for presentation within the context of a network-accessible document such as a Web page.
Background
The popularity of “group buying” Web sites has been skyrocketing. The basic premise is that a large group agrees to buy a particular item, the seller can afford to mark down the selling price, and all buyers reap a significant discount.
Typically, a group buying Web site publishes various offers to sell different items such as products or services. The items of each offer are marked down from normal prices. Each offer is contingent upon acceptance by a minimum number of people, which is stated in the published offer. People can indicate their acceptance of the contingent offer by interacting with an interface provided by the group buying Web site. When the specified number of people accept an offer, this forms a deal, and the seller becomes obligated to provide the offered item at the price pre-announced in the offer. In many cases, the group buying Web site will issue a coupon to each person that accepted the offer, where the coupon is redeemable at the seller to receive the benefit of the published deal.
One hypothetical example is an offer to sell an ocean kayaking class from Auke Bay Adventure Kayaking for $50, where the class is normally priced at $125. The offer requires thirty participants to accept. A group buying Web site publishes the offer directly on their Web site, or by distributing emails describing the offer. Thousands of people view the offer via Web site or email, and during this time, interested parties accept the offer using a “buy” button or other graphical user interface (GUI) feature provided in the Web site or email. The group buying Web site continually tallies the total number of acceptances, and provides an updated count via the Web site. When the number of acceptances reaches thirty, the offer may be closed, or it may continue for some time while others can still join in. When the offer closes, the group buying Web site issues coupons to the buyers, each coupon good for the right to purchase the Auke Bay Adventure Kayaking class for $50 instead of the normal $125. Email is one way in which the group buying Web site may distribute the coupons.
Group buying Web sites make money through fees collected from the sellers for publishing their sales offers as well as through certain revenue-sharing arrangements whereby the buyers' payments are shared in part by the Web site proprietor and the seller. To increase profits, group buying Web sites are always interested in gaining more customers. However, the challenge of attracting customers to a Web page and obtaining greater user engagement with the content displayed thereon is an age old problem that continually confronts Web site operators and advertisers. Offering more striking deals is one way to attract more customers, but to attract such deals there is no substitute for having a massive body of customers that visit or subscribe to the group buying Web site. So, the problem is circular.
In many respects, known group buying Web sites may be satisfactory to their advertising customers and buyers. Nevertheless, group buying Websites are like other businesses in that there is an ever present desire to pursue company growth to satisfy investors and achieve success, and in this respect, some heretofore unknown improvements are still needed.